Instituto Cervantes Library in London

Archive for the ‘Garci- José Luis’ Category

Young Gabriel Araceli works as a cashier for a modest printer in Madrid. His girlfriend, Inés, is a pretty orphan who lives in Aranjuez in the house of her uncle, Celestino Santos del Malvar, a humble priest and a distant relative of the powerful minister Godoy. Gabriel is visiting the Real Sitio to see his girlfriend just when the historical 19 March rebellion against Godoy takes place. Godoy’s palace is assaulted by the mob. As he thinks it is the best for the girl don Celestino agrees that Inés should go to Madrid to live with some other relatives who have a shop selling woolen cloths in the capital. But once she’s there the so-called relatives make Inés work as a servant. After many adventures, Gabriel manages to flee with Inés making the most of the tumultuous reception that the population of Madrid gives to the new king Fernando VII, El Deseado (The desired). The pair of lovers takes refuge in the boy’s boarding house, located in San José Street, opposite the Moneleón Park. Their plan is to flee to Cadiz, the lad’s home town. But on 2 May the popular revolt against the imperial detachment breaks out. And by chance, Gariel Araceli finds himself mixed up in the ferocious fighting which takes place in the Puerta del Sol and other sites in Madrid.

In Cenciella, a small village in Asturias, the bitter struggle between two political groups brings misfortune to two kind, naïve people; the couple made up of Urbano and Estrella. The secretary at the town hall is a liberal, idealist person but in spite of this a member of one of the political groups that considers him to be from the enemy group, decides to get revenge on him for his neutrality by raping his girlfriend the Sunday before their wedding. At this very moment Urbano is meditating on something that obsesses him; Sunday light is very different to other days, on Sunday it seems as if the sun looks at the earth face-to-face, on Sunday it is difficult not to connect with fellow men.

Once again (Lullaby, The Luminous Wound, The Grandfather) José Luis Garci enters the theatre and looks at it through the film camera. On this occasion he does this from the romantic, amusing view point which a comedy such as Ninette requires.

Ninette is a reworking and film adaptation of two works (Ninette and the Gentleman from Murcia and Ninette, Paris Fashions) which Mihura dedicated to his favourite character, the intelligent, sexy, amusing and spontaneous Parisian girl who works in Galerias Lafayette and who, from now on, will always be remembered with the smile and figure of Elsa Pataky.

The film Ninette, produced by Nikel Odeon and PC29 is Garci´s homage to Miguel Mihura (1905-2005) one of the greatest humorists and dramatists of the twentieth century.

This film has no plot. It is not so much an etching, as a folder of those “while you wait” portraits painted by artists down on their luck (and in some cases low in talent) in the streets of Madrid c.1950.

The “capital of the Empire” was then more then ever the breakwater of Spain. A grey breakwater with “the grey cops”, still on rations, affectionate and cruel, poor even in its joy, convalescent (with a slight fever at dusk) but also picaresque, festive and surrealist. All in all a merry-go-round of survivors and we are their heirs whether we like it or not. We are all heirs.

Towards the end of the 40’s, Julia, daughter of a wealthy family in Madird, travels to the remote Asturain town of Cerralbos del Sella to get over a great loss.

The family home -Llendelabarca- lies there and its where she spent the happiest summers of her life. Gradually, her relationship with the keepers, the schoolmaster Don Orfeo and also the unlucky priest of the town, Don Matías, will make Julia start to enjoy her new life to the full.

Don Rodrigo de Arista-Potestad, the Count of Albrit (Fernando Fernán-Gómez), the very symbol of an aristocratic family, returns to his town after a lengthy stay in America, ready to reveal a big secret.

Soon he discovers the resentment of an ungrateful town, the power of the honour of the Arista-Potestad and the true bravery of his family.